Profanity in the Pulpit?

Out of Ur, the blog of Leadership Journal, posted a short and thoughtful piece on this phenomena. Believe it or not, this has been an issue for the last two or three years and there has been a rather large food-fight over the issue. This approach to ministry is making inroads among pastors under forty years old who are trying to be hip and relevant.

At the head of the list of those proponents for coarse language from the pulpit is Mark Driscoll. On the other side are men like John MacArthur. Surprisingly, John Piper is somewhere in the middle (Piper's church hosted a pastor's conference last fall on the power of language and some of the promotional videos were, shall we say, over the top).

I've tried to steer clear of the debate but it keeps bubbling up. I once commented on a blog about how offensive this would be to my congregation and to me -- one whose upbringing was pretty much unsheltered. Someone responded and openly wondered if I was offended because "I live in the world of Little House on the Prairie."

Here is the link to the original story: Profanity in the Pulpit You will find a short description of Driscoll (thankfully no video clips) along with a link to well-written response by John MacArthur, entitled, The Rape of Solomon's Song. As an added bonus is a video clip from mega-church pastor Ed Young who completely distances himself from Driscoll and who also advises young pastors to do the same. There is also a link to something John Piper said on the topic (note: I haven't listened to it).

John MacArthur has also written some other pieces on this topic but don't read these until you've read the Part I (see above):

The Rape of Solomon's Song (Part 2)

The Rape of Solomon's Song (Part 3)

The Rape of Solomon's Song (Part 4--conclusion)